Thursday, 11 December 2008

What is a REAL Malay vs a Constitutional Malay ?

"...The REAL Malay Dilemma’ (is) the identity crisis of the so-called ‘MALAY RACE' (because) such a ‘race’ does NOT ETHNICALLY exist.

The dilemma is:

What (is) the REAL Malay, given that (a Malay) is only aCONSTITUTIONAL definition, which has really NO specific ethnic source identity?

The current insecurity of the Malay race is precisely that: an identity crisis of NOT knowing whether they are MELAYU FIRST or MALAYSIAN FIRST.

As an ETHNIC ORIGINAL PEOPLE GROUP, the Malays are very much of a Polynesian-Malay-Indonesian RACIAL CATEGORY. Technically therefore, one could find an Indonesian Malay who is a Christian or an animist, Buddhist or Hindu... (and) the Muslim Melanau of Sarawak are ‘Malays’ technically under our constitution, or likewise that the Muslim Iban are Malays.

We need to clearly understand and appreciate that the REAL Malay race concept is only a CONSTITUTIONAL definition andNOT an ETHNICITY-based definition.

The first five letters of "Malaysia" would always define theprimacy of theMalay CULTUREand the faith which the Malay Rulers are enshrined to protect and preserve. That must become the ONLY true and REAL Malay precedence definition and NOT any other form of forced or compulsory assimilation of Melayu-ness.

"Bangsa" will always mean the identity of the NATION-STATE and NEVER just that of the Malay race and culture, of which I feel little or no ethnic ownership.-KJ John

During the interview on Al-Jazeera recently, Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he is Malay and NOT an Indian.

(However), in ethnic-racial categories of sociology and anthopology, Mahathir really is a Continental INDIAN at best, or MALAYSIAN citizen at worst, by using the same unit of analysis of nation-state identities.

Today’s popular concept of 'race', daily used by all and sundry, is a ‘category’ to describe this thing of ethnicity and often used to differentiate people of such different ‘thingyness’.

All this brings us to what I call ‘the REAL Malay dilemma’ - the identity crisis of the so-called ‘MALAY RACE'. Such a ‘race’ does not ETHNICALLY exist.

The identity crisis for Malays becomes figuring out whether they are Malay first, or Malaysian first, or Malayan first.

The Constitutional Malay in Malaysia

The (Malaysian Federal) Constitution defines a Malay merely using a cultural and religious category.

Only in (Malaysia), the definition is based on the CONSTITUTIONAL categorisation. Therefore, we need to clearly understand and appreciate that the REAL Malay race concept is only a CONSTITUTIONAL definition and NOT an ETHNICITY-based definition.

It is a socio-political-nationalistic concept and NOT technically a RACIAL or ETHNIC category.

Are These REAL Malays/ MELAYU ? Or Simply MALAYSIANS

Arab-Muslims

Indian Muslims

Chinese-Muslims

As an ETHNIC ORIGINAL PEOPLE GROUP, the Malays are very much of a Polynesian-Malay-Indonesian RACIAL category.Technically therefore, one could also find an Indonesian Malay who is a Christian or an animist, Buddhist or Hindu. Therefore also, although one can argue that the Muslim Melanau of Sarawak are ‘Malays’ technically under our constitution, or likewise that the Muslim Iban are Malays; the people themselves might not agree with such an externally imposed definition.

Bangsa Malaysia

I made the same argument in a recent paper tabled at the Perdana Leadership Foundation Discourse Series on Bangsa Malaysia.

Another panelist, Prof Shamsul Amri did clarify that the concept of ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ is really another maverick concept.

In Bahasa Melayu the word bangsa is almost always a RACIAL and ETHNIC definition as the phrase "bahasa jiwa bangsa" means to a traditional Malay.

But, to me, "bangsa" will always mean the identity of the nation-state and never just that of the Malay race and culture, of which I feel little or no ethnic ownership.

I could therefore be CULTURALLY almost all Malay but TECHNICALLY can never be a Malay because of my Christian faith.

That is why I have always argued that Lina Joy was denied her constitutional rights of citizenship when the Federal Court refused to officially recgnise her conversion to Christianity.

(Our Malay-ness must) transform Malaysia into a constitutional monarchy and democracy, where the first five letters of Malaysia would always define:

the primacy of the Malay culture and

the faith which the Malay Rulers are enshrined to protect and preserve. And they have recently sworn that they would, too.

That must become the only true and real Malay precedence definition and not any other form of forced or compulsory assimilation of Melayu-ness.

The Malay Identity Crisis

The current insecurity of the Malay race is precisely that: an identity crisis of not knowing whether they are MELAYU FIRST or MALAYSIAN FIRST.

To me, it has therefore nothing to do with their religion or culture or even language; all these have been accepted by all other non-Malays as theirs and there is never a contention to make or re-label these as something else.

The real Malay dilemma is about what the REAL Malay is; given that (a MALAY) is only a CONSTITUTIONAL definition which has really NO specific ETHNIC source identity.

After all, maybe, there will never be such a race or ethnic identity without going to the roots of all such sources.

The Encyclopedia of Malaysia: Early History, has pointed out a total of three theories of the origin of Malay:

The Yunnan theory, Mekong river migration (published 1889)

The New Guinea theory (published 1965)

The Taiwan theory (published 1997)

The ancestor of Malays are believed to be seafarers who are well knowledged in oceanography, they move around from island to island in great distances between New Zealand and Madagascar, and they served as navigation guide, crew and labour to Indian, Persian and Chinese traders for nearly 2000 years, and over the years they settled at various places and adopted various cultures and religions. Notable Malay seafarers of today are Moken and Orang laut.

Some historians suggested they weredescendants of Austronesian-speakers who migrated from the Philippines and originally from Taiwan.

MALAY culture reached its golden age during Srivijayan times and they practiced Buddhism, Hinduism, and their native Animism BEFORE converting to Islam in the 15th century.

ETYMOLOGY

In the History of Jambi, the word "Melayu" originated from a river with name Melayu River near to Batang Hari River of today's Muara Jambi, Jambi province of Sumatra, Indonesia.

Even a Melayu Kingdom existed from the record of Yi Jing (a Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk) and archaeological research of Jambi, large numbers of ancient artifacts and ancient architectures of the Melayu Kingdom have been found with photo evidence.

However further tracing the root of the word, a small town in Tamil district appeared called Malai Yur which means "Land of Mountains"(malai means mountain and yur means land), a reference to the hilly nature of the Malay Archipelago.

Other ancient Indian sources , the Purana text, claimed "Malayadvipa" on Sumatra with the meaning 'dvipa' land surrounded by water, while the ancient Sanskrit word Himalaya means 'snow mountain'.

"Maleu-kolon" was used by Ptolemy which was also derived from Sanskrit 'malayakom' or 'malaikurram', according to G. E. Gerini (see Tamil place names in Malaysia)

The word Melayu began in use during the time of Sultanate of Melaka, founded by the fleeing prince Parameswara, from the declining Melayu Kingdom of Srivijaya in Palembang.

And the word was in popular use in 17th century onwards.

During the European colonization, the word "Malay" was adopted into English via the Dutch word "Malayo", itself from Portuguese "Malaio", which originates from the Malay word "Melayu".

According to one popular theory, the word "Melayu" means "migrating" or "fleeing", which might refer to the high mobility of these people across the region (cf. Javanese verb 'mlayu' means "to run", cognate with Malay verb 'melaju', means "to accelerate") or perhaps the original meaning is "distant, far away" (cf. Tagalog 'malayo') with the root word 'layo', which means 'distance' or 'far' in Tagalog and some Malayo-Polynesian languages.

Chinese sources

Early Chinese text "Ma-la-yu" (Chinese: 末羅瑜) written by monk Yi Jing was an independent kingdom. In later dynasties, such as the Mongol Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, the word Ma-La-Yu was mentioned often (in the history of China) to refer to a nation from southern sea with different spelling due to the change of dynasty.

According to Kedah Annals, Kadaram (Kedah Kingdom 630-1136) was founded by Maharaja Derbar Raja of Gemeron, Persia around 630 CE, and also alleged that the bloodline of Kedah royalties coming from Alexander The Great. The other Malay literature, Sejarah Melayu too alleged that they were the descendants of Alexander The Great.

Deutero Malays

Combination of the colonial Kambujas of Hindu-Buddhism faith, the Indo-Persian royalties and traders as well as traders from southern China and elsewhere along the ancient trade routes, these peoples together with the aborigine Negrito Orang Asli and native seafarers and Proto Malays intermarried each others and thus a new group of peoples was formed and became to be known as the Deutero Malays, today they are commonly known as the Malays.